Consequence
by river of the sand
Summary: AU GaaSaku. After three years they were finally over. She was finally free to find someone who deserved her. She just wasn't quite ready for the consequence of that decision. Rated M just in case.


**Consequence**.

 **Summary:** AU GaaSaku. After three years they were finally over. She was finally free to find someone who deserved her. She just wasn't quite ready for the consequence of that decision. Rated M just in case.

-o-

 _It's over._

Sakura stared at the words, not surprised that she wasn't upset.

 _We both knew from the beginning that this was only ever a sham relationship._

Three years ago, she hadn't thought so, but now she knew it was true.

 _We only had sex once – do you really want a relationship where we don't want to share a bed?_

No. She wanted a relationship with someone who didn't run off to the other side of the country when they did finally have sex.

 _We were never meant to be._

They were ending, after all. No such thing as forever if it ended. But truthfully, it had been over for a long time. It was only now that they were putting it into words.

 _I've met someone._

So had she... kind of.

 _I haven't been this happy in three years._

That explained a lot. For a fleeting moment, she wondered if he'd been talking to her mother again.

 _You deserve to be happy, too._

No shit.

 _Find someone, Sakura. Find someone who loves you like you deserve to be loved. I won't be contacting you again. I think it's for the best that we just go our separate ways._

The words were heavy and meaningful, but she couldn't bring herself to feel their weight.

Sakura sighed and closed down her laptop, not wanting to dwell on his email. "Good-bye, Sasuke."

Her eyes drifted down to the white stick on the table and she picked it up.

This. This was what she was really upset about.

Two pink lines in a pregnancy test. It wasn't Sasuke's, of course. It belonged to a man she knew nothing about. A man who had woven beautiful words, a charming smile, and confidence to get her between his sheets. She really should've broken up with her boyfriend before laying out all her woes on the redhead stranger. But somehow, Sakura couldn't bring herself to regret sleeping with that man.

Correction: she _hadn't_ regretted it... then. Now, however, she wasn't quite ready for the consequence of her decision. Fantastic sex didn't make up for the result of her carelessness.

And it put her in a difficult position, not just monetary wise. Her life was about to careen out of control. But somehow, while she was indeed upset, she couldn't seem to focus on it. Not fully. Life had been so much simpler just an hour ago. An hour ago, she was trying to gather her thoughts, so she could break things off with Sasuke when he beat her to the punch. An hour ago, she had an eloquent speech all planned out. And just like her life plans, none of that mattered anymore.

She reopened her laptop and stared, unseeing, at the email again.

With the pregnancy test in one hand and an unused tissue in the other, she tried to summon the strength to cry. That's what people did when their life fell apart, right? She was supposed to cry now. But she couldn't. She wasn't upset that Sasuke had just emailed her that he'd found someone else, that their long distant relationship was over.

 _Long distant relationships never work._

Her mother's nagging voice rang in her ears and Sakura closed her eyes in an attempt to silence it. Mebuki Haruno had never liked Sasuke, or any of the rich, snobby Uchiha family. They weren't good enough for her baby girl, she'd said. They would only use her and leave her destitute, like all rich people did to middle-class, decent people. Never mind that Sakura had never dated a _poor_ person in her life, seeming to somehow only attract men who had cash to burn. She couldn't seem to keep away from them. And them from her.

Let's see, there was the heir to the Nara Foundation – as boring as he was loaded, he was at least studious in the bedroom. Then there was that brief, failed romance with the black sheep of the Hyuuga family who seemed to somehow, despite his estrangement from his clan, still have more in one bank account than Sakura would ever spend in a week. And who could forget the older but not necessarily more mature, eternal bachelor that was the son of the famed White Fang, the longest running world champion in the world of Shidokan fighting, rich from his own days in the ring. Then there was Sasuke...

Sasuke. The son of the richest man in all of Japan. The little boy she'd had a crush on since childhood who she re-met as an adult and fell in love with. Or so she'd thought. He wasn't lazy like Shikamaru, obnoxious like Neji, nor unreliable like Kakashi. He was... Sasuke. She didn't have words to describe how good for her that made him.

But then he got a call from his family lawyers that his father had passed away and his brother wanted him back in Tokyo to help rebuild the family business. So began a three-year long-distance relationship in which Sakura had only her hand and a battery operated "friend" for company. Not that that one time she'd fallen into Sasuke's bed had been an experience to remember. After so many months of dancing around each other, their tryst had fallen... short of expectations. Then he'd left for Tokyo the next day and Sakura was left feeling unfulfilled.

And now, the last time she'd had sex...

She sighed. Two months ago, she'd been particularly mopey after a long conversation with her mother about how a real man wouldn't keep her waiting for three years, and "you're not getting any younger, Sakura", and "don't you want a man in your life, Sakura", and the infamous, "I'm going to be old and grey before you give me grandchildren, Sakura". Then began the whining about how she needed to find a man of her own class, to marry and give her children with, not an over paid trust fund kid. A _man_ who worked hard for honest pay. A man who didn't sit on a gold mine, because that kind of man _never_ cared for anyone but himself.

What kind of parent didn't jump for joy that their child hit the jackpot? Even if she was right about how obnoxious the filthy rich were to the not-so-rich.

And so, two months ago she'd stormed off from her mother in a huff, headed to an unfamiliar bar, gotten _tipsy_ , and let some strange redhead drive her back to his place. Waking up the next morning, sore but satisfied, and with a procession marching through her head, she'd realised the guy she'd picked up at the seedy bar had belonged there even less than her.

He was rich. Fuck, his home wasn't just an apartment, it was a penthouse – it took up the whole floor of a high rise building in a high-class area. And it smelled so _nice_.

How had she not noticed that? And what the fuck was a man who could afford to buy out every company she'd ever worked for with money to spare _doing_ in a dingy, cheap arse bar in the dead of night in the first place?

So, she'd run out of there as quickly as her dignity could carry her, before he could wake up, and tried to put that night behind her. It would've been so much easier to do if it hadn't been the best sex of her life. If she hadn't been so lonely. And if she wasn't lying, cheating scum. She'd cheated on Sasuke and she was scum. Even his email about how they'd just been lying to themselves and that he'd found someone new didn't assuage her guilt. And to top it off, said amazing sex hadn't been with some hard-working, blue-collar man like she'd decided her mother was right that she needed, but another insanely rich snob.

Sakura groaned, tossing the pregnancy test in the rubbish and leaving the tissues on her table as she made her way into the kitchen. Her apartment was modest, a reflection of a woman who had had to drop out of med school and get a waitressing job just to survive – she wasn't a leech on her boyfriend.

Ex-boyfriend, right.

Sasuke had offered, but it felt wrong to get him to pay for her studies. Especially since they lived so far apart, and he was no sugar daddy.

Sakura giggled out loud at that. The sudden, mental image of her ex-boyfriend all dolled up and handing money out to sleazy, beautiful whores was too funny. No, that wasn't him at all.

She stopped in the middle of making a cup of tea, her hand falling to her abdomen. What would he say if he knew she was pregnant? Would he even care?

She groaned, shaking her head. It didn't matter. But she couldn't do this by herself, and she wasn't looking forward to the talk with her parents. True, they wanted grandkids, but they were the traditional sort – she needed the father in her life. And she needed to _find_ him first. But she had no idea how to do that. Did she hire someone to look for him? Did she go out and look for herself? Maybe that bar was the first place to look, but something told her that he hadn't been there before that night, or since, just like her. She had no idea where to start looking first.

She knew nothing about him other than the small titbits about his annoyance at his siblings for trying to set him up with some woman who went unnamed other than a very colourful string of crude words he'd used to describe her. Where was he from? What was his name? Why the _hell_ hadn't she tried to find out more than that about him? Running off that morning had been a dick move. She couldn't remember enough about him to start looking. All she remembered was that choppy red hair, that tattoo on his forehead, the high cheekbones, chiselled body, and that thing he did with his tongue...

The doorbell stopped her imagination from going any further. She groaned. It had better be good.

She saw him through her peephole first, and forced down her sudden nerves to stop herself from hyperventilating.

He was here... how the _fuck_ was he here?

He knocked loudly on her door, startling her, and she realised she'd been staring at him through the hole like an idiot. She picked her jaw off the floor and carefully opened the door, taking a deep breath.

Without a door or lens distorting her view of him, he looked so much more _real_ , standing there in all his... _beautiful_ ...glory. That face, those eyes, that tattoo, and the adorable way he managed to look both determined and confident without appearing obnoxious. And again, she felt that familiar pull to him that had had her screaming in pleasure two months ago. It was why she'd cheated on Sasuke. Why she'd thrown away all her plans. She'd wanted a man who could make her feel good about herself. And so, he did, over and over again.

Standing in her doorway, and gripping the wooden door tightly, Sakura almost gasped. Suddenly, it all came flooding back to her, in surround sound and 3D. The heavy breathing. The frantic removal of clothes. The slow and deliberate teasing. His hands on her naked body, all over her skin. Her lips on his. His mouth between her legs. The guttural sounds of her moans and his groans. The feel of his hard muscles against her soft skin. The feeling of being stretched within, filled like she'd never been filled before. The shaking of his bed as she met him thrust for thrust. That desire and perfect tempo as they seemed to lock together like their bodies had been made for each other. The sound of skin slapping against skin. The cries as they reached the crescendo of their fucking. The sensual end of her orgasm as he came undone while bringing her to the edge with him.

Oh, fuck. And now she remembered having moaned his _name_.

"Gaara..."

He looked shocked, like he hadn't expected her to remember. "Sakura."

"Why are you here?" She asked, her voice hoarse. She should've asked, "how did you find me?"

"I wanted to know if..." His voice trailed off as he took in her face, suddenly aware it seemed, of the tension in her stance. She was clearly uncomfortable. And he definitely looked uncomfortable, too.

Was he really here for her? Was it about that night? Was he looking for another round? What kind of man tracked down a one-night stand two months later and turned up at her door unannounced? Was he fucking with her? Or had the sex been that amazing for him? Was he... she blinked heavily, realising he was waiting for her to either invite him in or tell him off. She forced herself to relax. Wordlessly, Sakura stepped out of the way and he took the hint, stepping into her apartment nervously.

He looked around the small apartment, taking in the pictures, the furniture, and the typically feminine touches to the otherwise bland dwelling.

"Before you say anything," she said quickly, when his eyes finally settled on her. "I don't know why you're here, but there's something you need to know."

' _I'm carrying your child.'_ He at least deserved to know that. Even if it made him run. Even if he was a coward. She deserved to know.

"I'm pregnant. It's yours. And..." She bit her bottom lip as his eyes widened. "I'm not looking for anything from you. _Hoping_ , yes, but I won't pressure you to be involved or help with... anything." She took a deep breath. "I know it's sudden – I just found out, myself. I'm sorry. You can leave if you want, and..."

Sakura trailed off as Gaara moved toward the door. She held her breath, terrified all of a sudden that he was going to flee. She didn't know how flaky this man was, or whether or not this pull between them could lead to anything substantial and _real_ , but she wanted him in her life. In the life of their child. She wanted to try.

She realised her hand was still on the door knob – and the door was still open – when he clasped his hand over hers. Gaara pried her hand off of the knob gently, closed the door, and turned back to face her.

"I'll stay."

She let out a deep, shuddering sigh and nodded, struggling not to break down. He was staying. Now she just had to not do anything stupid and scare him away. Her mother told her she was too emotional and that no man wanted to deal with a crying, emotional girl. She had to be a woman and stand up for herself.

"Okay." She smiled.

"It's scary," he said, suddenly, now taking her hand in his and rubbing the back of her hand gently. "But I came here hoping that you'd dumped that other guy and maybe see if you we could be something..." His face warmed and the slight tinge of a blush had her grinning at him. "Something special."

So, he felt it too?

Sakura cleared her throat and nodded. "I'd like that."

She stood on her tiptoes to kiss him, not expecting him to pull her into a tight, protective embrace. The intensity of his reaction had her smiling into his mouth.

Yes, this could be the start of something _very_ special.

-o-

 **It took me a few hours to write, while listening to Ed Sheeran... don't judge me. I love his songs. :)**

 **Please review!**


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